Jeff Samardzija draws criticism after White Sox-Royals brawl

Lorenzo Cain to reporters on Jeff Samardzija: 'I'm not a big fan of him.'

White Sox right-hander Jeff Samardzija was not pitching in Thursday’s game against the Royals, but he was involved in the most talked-about occurrence on the field.

Samardzija was one of five players ejected during the seventh-inning brawl between the Sox and Royals. After he appeared to go after Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain during the fight, Samardzija was the target of some Royals postgame criticism.

"For me, I'm not a big fan of him," Cain told reporters after the game. "I don't know what the deal is.”

The Royals’ Christian Colon told Fox Sports Kansas City he had heard Samardzija chirping at them from the bench.

"He's just in there running his mouth," Colon told the outlet. "I don't know about what.

"This is Oakland A's stuff, when he was in the wild-card game, yelling at Ventura on the mound. I don't get it."

Ventura and Sox center fielder Adam Eaton, who started the brawl when they exchanged words and walked toward one another following an Eaton groundout to Ventura, did more to calm the fire between the two teams. Eaton said he respected the Royals and Ventura, and Ventura was apologetic.

“It was a messy situation,” Ventura said through an interpreter. “I got the groundball. I wasn’t able to kind of control my emotions in that play, and it turned out ugly.”

The White Sox and Royals had a heated opening series in Kansas City, Mo., earlier this month, but the intensity skyrocketed when a benches-clearing brawl resulted in five ejections Thursday night at U.S. Cellular Field.

In the seventh inning of the Sox's 13-inning, 3-2 loss to the Royals, the fight...